A big financial boost to Calgary-based AMP Legacy Foundation of Canada will see more Grade 3 students on the ice this year, learning what it takes physically and mentally to take part in sledge hockey.

The Government of Alberta announced that the charity would be receiving $500,000 from the province’s Civil Society Fund, which aims to fund unique programs that don’t fit into permanent budget items in the provincial budget.

Chris Cederstrand, Adaptive Sports Director of the AMP Legacy Foundation of Canada, said that the funding provided by the province would be used to expand the number of students and schools that would be able to get onto the ice.

“We started this program off last year, and we literally went through two to four schools. Coming into this year, we put up our calendar and the feedback that we got from those schools was just unbelievable,” he said.

The expansion of AMP’s Community Champions programming now means that more than 2,000 students will take part in the 2024–2025 school year.

Cederstrand said that he had no idea how fast classrooms would sign up for the opportunity to put students into sledges, free of cost to schools.

“It’s a unique experience for them, and it’s something for the kids, they get to get out and have fun. They’re active, and they learn how to be good people,” he said.

Making kids a little more equal on the ice, and better people as a result

Part of that learning experience to be better people comes through the sport of sledge hockey not always favouring the traditional able-bodied hockey athletes, Cederstrand said.

“In all honesty, a lot of the time we have kids that are gymnasts or do equestrian, and they have a better understanding of balance in that sense. They’re the ones out here motoring around,” he said.

“You have a different dynamic switch where the kids that generally might be the more dominant kids in a classroom or in a school become very equal with everyone else. It changes that dynamic, where they’re now having to ask questions on how to get better, and where the person that would never be asked that question, is now getting to become a leader.”

Currently, the Grade 3 AMP programming runs twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays at the Seton YMCA, but Cederstrand said that there was a hope that could be expanded to three or even five days a week, and that funding from the province would continue past the one year Civil Society Fund grant.

“I would love to see this program run multiple times a day. It’s something with the amazing partnership we have with the YMCA, I think that’s something that we could do,” he said.

“You could have two schools or three schools in here at the same time, just rotating through. I’d love to be able to see 10,000 kids come through.”

Brad Layzell, chairman and founder, AMP Legacy Foundation of Canada said that the great thing about the funding from the province was that it meant there were no outlay costs for schools to take part in programming.

“The only thing the schools are responsible for are the busses to and from the venue. Everything else is covered. We haven’t picked a certain school board at all. We’ve just opened it up to any elementary school, any Grade 3 for the schools or the classes apply,” he said.

“The Canadian Sports Hall of Fame has helped us put together a qualification package that they take with them, they do activities before they get here, they learn about the history of Para sports, and then we have some activities for them to do after.”

Funding to provide positive real world impacts

Minister of Seniors, Community, and Social Services, Jason Nixon, said that the ask for the funding came as a result of a conversation that he had with Layzell at the Calgary Stampede in 2022.

“I really recognize that there’s nowhere within my ministry that’s responsible for those who face disabilities, both children and adults, where we will have funding for this part of the program, and so we wanted to try it,” he said.

He said that’s what made this a perfect match for the more generalized funding from the Civil Society Fund, and that there was a possibility for more help through future funding cycles.

“I think we’ll see really good results, and we’ll have that conversation as we go into the next cycle between both [Minister of Tourism and Sport] Joseph Schow and myself about where it might best fit,” Minister Nixon said.

“This was a start, and I think a creative way to be able to use funds to be able to impact those individuals that are not to be able to have a lot of success through sport.”

The half-million dollar mark was a hard decision given that it was being supported by taxpayers, but that it would have real-world impacts, Nixon said.

“I think, though, that you have to spend some time in gratitude, to work in the real world with the kids, and this is exactly what we’re looking for. Our ministry is responsible for both children and adults with disabilities and often we spend a lot of our time in those areas focused on things like infant support, the AISH program, and other avenues like that are critical,” he said.

“We don’t often get to spend some time looking at different ways to invest outside of that income support intensive, so I think this was a great opportunity to partner with organizations and the disabled community.”